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Monday, August 25, 2014

This past weekend Black Iris Booking took over the Magic Stick for the first ever Blackout BBQ. Many of you are probably familiar with their annual even, Black Christmas. Well, just think of that, but on a slightly smaller scale.

The show featured close to 20 bands spread out across three stages, the Magic Stick, the Magic Stick Lounge and the Garden Bowl. The lineup included Detroit favorites like Downtown Brown and SNAFU, as well as bigger names like Fang and Iron Reagan. Although I missed the first few bands of the night, I was able to catch a handful of songs from nearly everyone on the lineup. The set times were arranged so there was always someone playing, but there was very little overlap, so you were always able to catch at least part of a band's set. Plus, one advantage to this fest versus Black Christmas was that you didn't have to go outside to head down to the Majestic Theatre at all. So that made it really easy to catch everyone you wanted to see.

All of the bands put on a great show, but throughout the night I kept thinking that Rebel Spies definitely stole the show. They played downstairs in the Garden Bowl and played one hell of a set! They definitely showed up a lot of the other bands. At least, that was the case until the Koffin Kats hit the stage. Now, I've always been a fan of this band's live show, but Saturday night they were even more awesome than I remember. Maybe it was all of the beers or maybe it was the fact that this was my first time seeing them with John Kay, but they were outstanding.

Other bands that stick out were Against the Grain (of course), The Goddamn Gallows (although the accordion player made me gag a few times), and Fang. Axe Ripper closed out the night, as this was also their CD release show. Even though I didn't get to catch their full set,I enjoyed what I did hear and the crowd was really into it.

Head over to our Facebook page to check out even more photos from the night. Congrats to the ladies at Black Iris Booking for putting on another stellar show. Hopefully this will become another annual event!